Category Archives: Fun Stuff

Making Some Good Guesses (or I Am Not A Cat)

Posted on February 13, 2020 | Comments Off on Making Some Good Guesses (or I Am Not A Cat)

This past weekend was the Oscars, and as always I went to the Oscar party that my friends throw every year. It’s really the best party because I can watch the Oscars the way I want and I can still celebrate with friends. And I love that it is a costume party because that’s always fun. I’m not the best with costumes, but I love seeing what my friends come up with. But this year, I figured out my costume a few months ahead of time.

I have no clue why I thought of this, but I realized I could make a Fox News costume by having some newsprint on my clothes and wearing some fox ears. It was an easy and clever costume so I knew that was the perfect thing to do. And even though Fox News isn’t technically a character in the movie “Bombshell”, it kind of is. Plus, the costume doesn’t have to be an actual character. A costume that represents a movie from the past year is pretty much the only requirement.

I found a newsprint scarf online and some fox ears that also came with a tail. And even though I’m not good at doing makeup, I really wanted to try and see if I could do something. So I looked up a lot of videos on how to do fox makeup and did a very simple version of what I found online. And I have to say I think I did a really great job considering my lack of makeup ability!

It wasn’t super elaborate or fancy, but I felt like it represented a fox. And I was happy with the final result which is what mattered the most to me.

I got to the party earlier than I normally do, but that allowed me to hang out with my friends before the show started. I always watch the Oscars in the quiet room, where we aren’t supposed to talk except during commercials. So while the show is on, I’m not being social. And I knew I wasn’t going to stay super late, so I wanted to get my socializing time in before things got started. And it was nice that I was early and there weren’t a lot of people there because I could get a photo of my full costume plus a photo with my friend Marie.

But one thing I noticed as soon as I got to the party was that everyone thought I was a cat. I totally forgot that “Cats” came out last year and I guess in a way I did look like a cat. Plus, there were a few friends who did come dressed as cats. But I just kept saying “I am not a cat!” whenever that was the guess for my costume. I just wish now that I had thought of this being an issue so I could have worn a shirt that said that.

Once the show started, things were pretty normal in the quiet room. We did have a few moments that were really shocking where we were all yelling, but those were rare. We were quiet for most of the show and that allowed us to really enjoy it and hear every moment of the speeches.

It also helped us track who was winning because there is a contest to be the person who guesses the most winners correctly. I don’t always do great with the guessing, but I was making a real effort. And I was doing amazingly well from the start! I kept guessing them correctly, even the categories where the guesses were complete guesses and I had no reason why I picked one over the others. In the end, I only missed 4 out of 24 awards, which may have been my best one ever.

After the awards were done, we had the costume parade to pick the costume winners. And before we voted on the costumes, we also got a big group photo of everyone there. I don’t think we have gotten a group photo before, but I love that we got one this year.

I knew I wasn’t going to win the costume contest, but I wanted to at least be on the honorable mention list (which means that you got at least one vote). And I did get on that list (and I promise I didn’t vote for myself). The winners were all really amazing costumes that were clever and the ones I expected to win. I don’t mind not winning since my costume was good but not nearly as good as what I knew everyone else would come up with. But I was hoping I might place with guessing the winners.

I knew I’d be in the top few, but it’s the top 2 that win prizes. And it turned out that 2 people did 1 guess better than I did. So I did get 3rd place, but no prize. But I was still proud of myself for how well I did with my guessing!

After all the prizes were given out, I started making my rounds of goodbyes since I wanted to start heading home. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had an early morning the next day and about a 30-minute drive home. But I was glad I got to spend so much time with my friends and I’m sure the next party will be here before we know it!

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Default ThumbnailA Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show) Default ThumbnailOscar Party Time (or Feeling Inspired) Default ThumbnailBeing “Wild” (or Not Guessing A Lot Of Winners Right This Year) Default ThumbnailOscar Party (or Looking “Frozen”) Default ThumbnailMaking My Acting Bold (or Feeling Great From An Audition) Default ThumbnailMore Comfortable In Improv Class (or Making Friends With My Classmates)

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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And Another Year Of Disney (or I Need To Get Back To The Parks)

Posted on February 12, 2020 | Comments Off on And Another Year Of Disney (or I Need To Get Back To The Parks)

For quite a while now, I’ve had a Disney pass. This has been something that is a bit of a splurge for me, but it’s a worthwhile splurge. Going to Disneyland isn’t cheap and getting an annual pass makes it much more affordable for me. And pretty much every year that I’ve had my pass, I have added up every time I went during the year to confirm that I got more than my money’s worth.

I have both my annual pass for the parks as well as a parking pass (I don’t think the parking pass is available anymore, but I was grandfathered into being able to add it on). Getting my money’s worth on the pass is easy because I think I only need to go 3 or 4 times. The parking pass ends up usually being the equivalent of having to pay for parking 10 or 11 times, so that’s a bit harder. Sometimes, I just look at the overall cost and not split it up, which means I need to go about 6 times to make it worth it. But being worth it is also a subjective thing.

If I had to pay for parking every time, I might not go as often. So while I might spend more over the year by pre-paying for a parking pass, I go more knowing I don’t have to pay $20 or $25 each time to go. So for me, it’s worth it no matter what.

But as you might have been able to tell by my lack of Disney posts on here, I haven’t been to the parks in a while. I actually haven’t been there since before the summer pass blackout. I haven’t seen the new Star Wars land at all. Obviously I haven’t been on either of the new Star Wars rides either. I think this may be the longest time I’ve gone without going to the parks since I started getting my pass again. And I do miss Disneyland a lot. My schedule just hasn’t necessarily allowed me to go. I’ve been busy with work and other things. Plus, my friends that I normally go with haven’t been able to go and I don’t necessarily want to go by myself. Even though I used to do that all the time, I do really prefer going with a friend.

But even though I might not have gotten my money’s worth on my last annual pass, there is no question to me that the pass was worth it. The few times I did go were awesome and I had a great time. And I don’t feel like I wasted money or anything because I got more than my money’s worth several years in a row. So I guess I’m just balancing things out.

And I’m extra grateful this time for renewing my pass because a day after I did it, the prices went up! There have been a few times that the price increase happened right before my pass was up for renewal or I knew I needed to renew it and didn’t do it before they had a price increase. Since they don’t announce when the prices are going up and it just happens overnight, it’s a matter of luck to get the renewal done before it happens. And this time, I guess I was lucky! I didn’t save a ton of money, but it went up about $50 which is something. And I’m glad I saved that money because I know it will go to use for something else.

Now that I’ve got another year of Disney ahead of me, I just need to figure out when I can get there! I still have no clue when I’ll be able to go, but I’m hoping soon because I need my Disney fix! I’ve been trying to find some more friends that have Disney passes so I can have more people to go to the parks with. I also love having fun adventures with new people in the parks because you discover new things that they know about or love in the parks that might be something I haven’t noticed before. Hopefully, I’ll have another Disney day coming up soon and I can do another park recap post on here!

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Default ThumbnailAnother Year Of Disneyland! (or Paying With Ink Recycling) Default ThumbnailAnother Year Of Disneyland (or No More Ink Money) Default Thumbnail2 Restaurants and 2 Rides (or A Very Low-Key Disney Afternoon) Default ThumbnailA Very Full Disney Day (or Finally Able To Get Back To The Parks) Default ThumbnailA Quick Disney Day (or Getting Back To The Parks And Onto The Train) Default ThumbnailFinally Back At Disneyland (or Enjoying An Average Day At The Parks)

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More Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

Posted on February 7, 2020 | Comments Off on More Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

I didn’t intend to do a lot of work around my house this week, but it looks like things just lined up that way. But I will say, it’s been nice to get a lot of things done this week that I haven’t been able to do before and I finally have them off my list. Maybe it’s because next week will mark 10 years since I moved into my house, but it’s nice that I’m doing things that feel like they are refreshing my space.

There are still so many things I’d love to do to my house if I had the money to do so, but doing little things is nice. I am also restricted with what I can do because I rent my house, but I’ve found lots of things that don’t require damaging walls (or doing minimal damage) that adds a lot to my space. But most of the things I’ve been doing lately to my house involve removing things and not adding them.

For a long time, I’ve had an exercise bike in my house. I thought I might have written a post about it on here, but I think I might have gotten the bike before I started the blog! I also thought I had a photo when my parents helped me put it together, but after searching my photos a dozen times, I can’t find it. The only photo I could find of my bike was from when I posted about it on Facebook trying to sell it.

The bike actually fit nicely into my house and I had the perfect spot to have it. When my living room was set up a bit differently, it faced the tv. After I moved things around, I had to move the bike a bit to see the tv if I wanted to watch while I was on it. Sometimes I would just listen to music and sometimes I would do something else, but usually, I was watching tv when I was on it.

And I did use that bike a lot. I have no clue how often I was using it, but it was something I tried to use pretty regularly before I discovered Orangetheory. After I started going to OTF, I would still use the bike from time to time. I would say maybe once a week or every other week, I’d use it for a low impact workout. I wouldn’t bike as hard as I knew I probably should, but it was still getting used.

But my parents brought it up to me last year that if I wasn’t using it a ton, maybe I should think about getting rid of it. My parents were the ones who bought it for me as a gift, so I never thought of getting rid of it because I was so grateful that they got it for me. But hearing them say that made me realize that there wasn’t much of a point for me to keep it for the minimal use I was getting out of it. When you live in a 400 square foot home, every bit of space is necessary. And I could use the space that it was in for something better.

Once I felt like getting rid of the bike was a reasonable option (before, it also felt like I was rejecting the idea of working out at home even though I was going to OTF 4 days a week), I decided to see if I could find someone who would want it. I have no idea how much it cost when it was bought because it was a gift and it was bought 7 or 8 years ago, but I wasn’t worried about selling it for a profit or anything. I got a lot of use out of it and I only wanted to put a price on it so that I wouldn’t get a ton of people trying to get a free bike. So I posted it for sale for $20 and thought that was a reasonable price.

I was surprised that it took a few months for me to find someone who wanted it, but I finally was connected to a friend of a friend who was looking for a cheap exercise bike. And mine was cheap plus it was in really good condition considering the age. So the other day, I had to find a way to get the bike out of my house (it was in pieces and in boxes when we brought it into my house) and off it went to its new home. And now, there is a big empty space in my house.

Just like I don’t want to waste space with stuff in my house, having so much empty space in my house isn’t what I want either. I have some ideas for what I would like to put there because I do need some more storage. But just like with my bookcase, I’m not going to just go out and buy something to have it. I want to find the right thing for the space and for what I need.

My bike has been almost like a room divider between my living room and dining room for so long, and it feels weird not to have it there. But it is nice knowing that someone who needs it has it and I have a lot of space to put something there that I know I will need more.

There isn’t much else I can get rid of in my house, but I will say these back to back projects/cleanings have inspired me to see what else I can do with moving things around in my house. I have a feeling there will be a few more posts like this one coming up soon as I continue to renovate my space to fit my life even better!

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Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House) Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter) Default ThumbnailGetting Rid Of Extras (or Cleaning House) Default ThumbnailEven More Organizing (or This Was An Overdue Project) Default ThumbnailSpring Cleaning (or Needing To Declutter Again)

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A Bookcase Makeover (or A Free Upgrade To My Space)

Posted on February 6, 2020 | Comments Off on A Bookcase Makeover (or A Free Upgrade To My Space)

I’ve had said for a long time that I want to work on organizing my house more and making my space feel more like me. There are a lot of projects that I could do to accomplish that, but it’s overwhelming to think about everything I could do. I think because of that, I have avoided doing any of them. But I have had a feeling of needing to change things up for a long time.

I’ve slowly been making changing in my house to have nicer things or to make what I have work better for me. A lot of the changes are about getting rid of things that I might not need anymore. I’ve been selling things that I don’t use anymore to have a little extra money, but it’s not about raising money. But making $10 or $20 off of something I would just get rid of is nice. And there are a few things that I’d like to buy to add to the organization of my house that I could put that money toward.

But it’s always nice when I find something that costs nothing that makes my house feel so much more like me.

The bookcase I have in my room isn’t anything special. I think I bought it at Target or Staples and I know I bought it when I got my first apartment. So I’ve had it for over 16 years. It’s been with me in 3 different homes and it’s been in a few different places in my current house. I don’t love the bookcase, but it does the job and I haven’t felt motivated to get something new nor have I found one that I really want to get. I don’t want to replace it until I find something that I know will add to my space.

But the bookcase serves its purpose. I don’t have a ton of books, but I need to be able to store them and keep things organized. And for as long as I can remember, my books were organized in the same way. The very top shelf had my etiquette books and other types of self-improvement type books (more about style than improving my life, but still self-improvement). The very bottom shelf had all of my acting books. And the middle shelves had my other books. And each section was organized in alphabetical order. I figured that made sense and just went with it.

I couldn’t find a good picture of what my bookcase looked like before, but I did find this photo where you can see it a bit and it gives an idea of how I had things set up.

But even though this organizational method made sense, I didn’t like the look of it. I would love to have a library of beautiful books and have my bookcase look fancy. And the way that I had my books just looked too functional when it didn’t need to be that way. So from time to time, I would look at things online about how to organize a bookcase. I never really thought any of those ideas would work, but I still wanted to make a change.

For some reason, this past Monday I was struck with the need to change my bookcase. I figured I could try different organizational ideas and see which ones I liked. I didn’t think I would just work on it and be done with it, but I knew I needed to just start and go from there. So the first thing I did was take every single book off of my bookcase. And when doing that, I found a few books that I realized I don’t need anymore. I don’t think I got rid of any of my fiction books, but there were several acting and self-improvement books that were either outdated or that I hadn’t looked at once since I moved into my current house. All of those books went into a bad to donate (I didn’t want to sell them since donating them to the library or other places is better).

Once I got rid of some books, I started working on the first idea about how to organize a bookcase: organizing the books by color. I picked this first because I was so sure that I would hate it. Organizing books by color didn’t keep books together in a way that made sense. I still wanted to have some separation between my fiction and non-fiction books and if I just did all of the books of the same color together, that wouldn’t accomplish that. But I started to make piles around my room and found that I could still keep those 2 types of books separate even when I split them up by color.

I worked on putting the books back after making the piles, and I didn’t put them all upright. I did some of the books on the side which ended up making more room on my bookcase. And once I had the books in a place that worked, I added a few other things from around my house to fill in the empty space. And once I did that, I took a step back and realized that the idea that I thought I would hate ended up being exactly what I wanted to do.

It’s silly how my room feels so much more complete somehow just by moving around a few books. I didn’t make a huge change and almost everything is still in about the same place as they were before. But that small change put things into exactly where they should be and created the look that I didn’t know I wanted to find.

So many organizational projects require supplies or buying something to complete it. It’s nice when I can find something that is completely free and still makes me feel like I splurged on something!

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Default ThumbnailIs It Too Early To Be Spring Cleaning? (or Out With The Unused) Default ThumbnailA Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize) Default ThumbnailIt Doesn’t Take Much To Upgrade A Space (or A Multi-Day Furniture Build) Default ThumbnailOrganization Time (or Seeing A Bit Of A Mess) Default ThumbnailCleaning Up And Giving Things Away (or Finding More Space In My House) Default ThumbnailMore Empty Space In My House (The Cleaning And Organizing Continues)

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Another Union Working Evening (or Doubling Up On Live Streams)

Posted on February 5, 2020 | Comments Off on Another Union Working Evening (or Doubling Up On Live Streams)

It’s been my job to do the live streams for the Union Working meetings for quite a while now. It’s an easy job to do and I know that a lot of people are grateful that I am able to do it. Many people either cannot make our meetings or they don’t live in LA, so having the videos posted allows so many more people to learn from what happens. Sometimes there are a few things we can’t have public, but I try to live stream as much of the meeting as I can.

But for the meeting that we had this past week, I got to run 2 different live streams. We had a guest at our meeting this time, which was a nice treat. Our guest was Chaim Magnum, who is an agent/owner of the LemonLime Agency. He was there to discuss his experience with submitting actors for commercial breakdowns and what he sees with union versus non-union work. And he wanted to have a live stream of the meeting for his Instagram, so I helped him with that. I had my iPad on a tripod running our usual live stream and his iPad being propped up with water bottles running his Instagram live. Fortunately, there weren’t many issues with running both, but it did make things a bit interesting for me.

Chaim first talked about his experiences as an agent, and then we had a Q&A where anyone could ask him questions. There were a lot of good questions about understanding how he sees the current state of the industry. There were questions about some of the new contracts we have and commissions that agents can take. And for some of the questions, we also had some staff from the union at the meeting to help answer things. It really was a great informational session and I’m so glad that I was there for it and could record it so others can watch.

Besides having our guest, we had some of the usual discussions that we have at our meetings. We discussed some current issues regarding unions and some of the battles that they are fighting. There are a few new tax policies that people were concerned about would affect them but our union was able to make sure that we would be protected. And we wanted to discuss some upcoming things and deadlines our union has.

Then we had a new thing that will hopefully be happening at the next several meetings. Being on a committee in our union is something that many people are confused about. They don’t know how to get on a committee or how to be involved even if they aren’t an official committee member. So the hope is that for the next several meetings, there will be a representative from a few different local committees so they could explain what their committee does and what opportunities there are to be involved now that the committee members have been selected. There were 3 committees at this past meeting and I think the plan is to cover 3 committees each time.

I love this idea and I wish this had been around years ago! I am getting more involved in committees now, but for a long time, I had no idea what I could do if I wasn’t a committee member or how I could try to become one. Now, I understand it significantly better, but there are still committees that I’m not completely sure what they do or if they have public events that everyone can attend. I’m excited to learn more about our local committees so when I have a chance to request to be on one the next time that I can be better about which ones I select. When you request to be on a committee, there is also space for you to write why you want to be on it. And by understanding the committees more, I can write a better pitch for why I should be selected. Having these little explanations of the committees is only going to benefit all members, whether or not they want to be a party of committee service.

After going over the committee information, there were a few more small updates about Union Working such as when our next meeting will be and some of the things we have for sale that help off-set the cost of renting the rooms that we have our meetings it. Even though we had a lot of information being covered in the meeting, we somehow ended exactly on time!

But before anyone could leave, we did want to take a big group photo of everyone at the meeting. We had a really good turnout and there were several people there that I haven’t seen before. I love that we have new people coming to our meetings and I hope they come back and bring some friends with them next time!

I didn’t stay too late after the meeting because I had an early morning the next day, but I did make sure I said hi to all of my friends who were there before I had to say goodbye and head home.

Overall, this was another successful Union Working meeting and I am so glad that I was able to be there. Not just because I got a lot of good information out of the meeting, but because I was able to help out with my live stream and doing a second live stream. The more people who can see what we are discussing, the better!

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Default ThumbnailA Low Key Union Working Meeting (or Getting To Fully Focus On What’s Being Said) Default ThumbnailUnion Working Support (or Celebrities And Middle Class Actors Unite) Default ThumbnailDoubling Up On Union Days (or Really Trying My Best To Focus) Default ThumbnailLearning So Much From Union Working (or Getting Ready For Contract Negotiations) Default ThumbnailAnother Union Working Meeting (or Rolling With The Technical Difficulties) Default ThumbnailFinal Union Working Meeting For 2017 (or A Commercial Roundtable)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff

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Adjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness)

Posted on February 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Adjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness)

Last month, I set a monthly challenge to only read self-help/improvement books. I really was excited about this challenge because I had so many books on my library list that I wanted to read. I thought I’d be able to go through a big chunk of that list and I started the challenge assuming it would be easy to do and I’d get it done.

Then, only a week into the month, I realized that this challenge might not be the right one for me. It was actually stressing me out to not have reading as an escape and I had to read something that wouldn’t make me have to think too much. I wasn’t sure what a new version of the challenge would be, but I was open to exploring other options. But this was before I started to feel horrible so I think my ideas just weren’t realistic for me. All the ideas that I was thinking about trying just didn’t happen.

What I did end up doing was spending one or two days reading a self-help/improvement book after completing a fun book. This ended up being once or twice a week so I did get quite a bit of reading done in the book I started working on. I think part of the struggle was how close to home the book I was reading was hitting me and it was tough to get through. I was taking everything in that I was reading and I had to take some time to let it sit. I didn’t want to start reading another chapter when I was still thinking about what I just read. So only reading a little bit at a time and then taking a break did end up working for me. That just wasn’t what I was planning on doing. But this routine is working for me right now and I plan on continuing it as I work through this book and hopefully as I read a few more books I have on my list.

I’m not declaring last month’s challenge a total fail because I did adjust things as I need them. That’s not something I normally do, but I am proud of myself for realizing I did need to do that in order to have a bit of success.

This month, I’m doing a challenge that I’ve told myself I needed to do for a while. It’s been a long time since my old therapist had me work on a happiness checklist. I’ve made some minor changes to the list, but for the most part, I have the same things on it that I’ve had since the beginning. And that’s just not working for me anymore. I need to take some time to find what makes me happy and what doesn’t and adjust the checklist accordingly. And in the past, when I’ve tried to change up what’s on the checklist, I don’t think I’ve taken enough time.

There are a few things on the list that are easy for me to decide that I want to remove. Either they aren’t important to me anymore or they are things that I don’t feel add to my happiness in life. For example, getting 10,000 steps is currently on my list, but I don’t really care as much about this anymore. I would love to be able to get 10,000 steps a day done, but that’s not always possible. When I’m extremely busy with work or I’m feeling nauseous, I know I won’t get my steps in. And I don’t want to stress about not getting that done just so it can be checked off when I don’t care.

But when it comes to what I want to add to the list, that’s a bit harder for me. There are some things that I think would be good on the list, but I don’t know if I want to have it as something I worry about getting done. So this month, I want to test out a few different ideas to see how doing them regularly affects me (or stresses me) and I also want to take notes on other things that make me happy or bring me joy. I might discover something I didn’t think about having on the list because doing it randomly made me so happy.

I’m not going to rush into making any final decisions about what I want on the list until closer to the end of the month, but I will play around with different list ideas and probably make some mock-up checklists to see if they feel right to me. Right now, I have 10 things on my list, but I don’t know if that is going to stay the same. I don’t know if I want to have way more than 10 or how low I want to go below 10. 10 seems like a good number, but it doesn’t have to stay there if I discover having 9 or 11 on the list works better for me.

Hopefully, at the end of this month, I will have a better idea of what I want my checklist to be. I might not have the final checklist idea, but I want to have at least some adjustments to it to reflect what makes me happy a bit more. And by having a better checklist, I hope that I can find ways to be happier more often and I will find the checklist as useful to me as it was when I started using it.

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Having Some Reflections During My Workout (or Thinking About The Treadmill)

Posted on January 30, 2020 | Comments Off on Having Some Reflections During My Workout (or Thinking About The Treadmill)

I know I usually post workout posts on Mondays, but this isn’t exactly about how my workouts went this week. I’ll still do that post on Monday, but I wanted to share some thoughts I had during my workout yesterday.

I try not to daydream while working out since I know that if I’m not paying attention that I could hurt myself. Of course, there are some times that my mind does wander a bit and I start thinking of something random. Usually, this happens when we have a long endurance challenge and I want to take my mind off of what I’m doing. It’s a good way to distract me when we have a long row or a long run/bike. But sometimes, my mind goes to random places even without needing the distractions.

Yesterday I was done with my cardio and working on the rower when I started to think about when I was using the treadmill. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the treadmill and I have no intention of using it again for a while. Honestly, I’m much happier using the bike than I was on the treadmill and I’ve gotten to a place where I don’t think of the bike as the easier choice. And I’ve stopped worrying about if my nausea is going to kick in during the treadmill and I’ll have to switch in the middle of a block. My stress and anxiety about my nausea are a bit less now that I don’t have to think about if it will be a treadmill day or a bike day.

When I used the treadmill, I had a very different experience when I was power walking and when I was running. Running was actually much easier on me for some reason. While I didn’t have the stamina to run the entire time, I preferred my running time. I didn’t have balance issues and I didn’t feel like I was modifying what I had to do. I did have some occasional pain, but I was working through it. But when I was power walking, I couldn’t do it normally. I don’t know why walking causes more issues with me with balance than running does, but that’s what happens. I had to hold on to the rails while power walking so I didn’t step off the side of the treadmill belt. My coaches told me I could go slower so I didn’t have to hold on, but I would have to go so slowly that I wouldn’t be getting much of a workout done at that speed. So I held on even though I knew that was also not letting me get a full cardio workout in.

I was thinking back about the first time I used the bike and how much I didn’t really care for it. So many people think of the bike and strider as options to use when you are injured or having a day where you need to go easy. And I was one of those people before I was using the bike regularly. It took time to get to where I am now with being happy using the bike, but I’m there now and I don’t see that changing.

And reflecting on what I had to do on the treadmill made me even happier with how I can do on the bike. There are a few changes I make on the bike when I’m nauseous, but I’m not really modifying how I use the bike. I just go easier on things and I don’t have to have bad form or do something that makes my time on the bike not as hard as it should be. I rarely use the handles on the bike and instead I sit up straight, so my posture is probably better too. I’m not totally sure my cardio is as hard on the bike as it was when I was running, but I know that it’s better than when I was power walking. And I’m trying to make some changes on the bike that will make it harder and make me work harder to get a better workout in.

I’ve had moments where I’ve thought about how much happier I am on the bike, but this was the first time where I had a long moment where I thought about it and only had positive thoughts. There was nothing negative when I was thinking about my time on the bike. The only thought that wasn’t completely positive was how I was thinking about how silly it was that I didn’t think the bike would be enough for me. But I mainly thought about all the good things that have happened for me since I stopped fighting the idea of using the bike and really embracing it.

Next month at Orangetheory, we’ve been told there will be a lot of focus on our base pace. I’m excited to see what I can do because I’ve been at the same base pace on the bike for a while now. I know I can probably do more, but it’s hard sometimes to push myself. But I need to do that because I need to figure out the perfect way to make my workouts harder without being impossible. And I know if I was on the treadmill that I would be increasing my running speed. So I just need to do the same on the bike and see what I can do.

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Default ThumbnailDri-Tri Prep Workouts (or The Beginning Of My Workout Week) Default ThumbnailRowing And Partners (or Enjoying A 4 Workout Week) Default ThumbnailA 4 Workout Week (or Only A Few More Weeks Of 2015 Workouts) Default ThumbnailAn Off Workout Week (or Just Trying To Do My Best) Default ThumbnailHaving Some Realizations About My Workouts (or Still Adjusting My Thinking) Default ThumbnailSome Holiday Workouts (or Back On The Treadmill This Week)

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Adding A Little Control In My Life (or Finding Little Ways To Be Helpful)

Posted on January 28, 2020 | Comments Off on Adding A Little Control In My Life (or Finding Little Ways To Be Helpful)

There is so much that is out of my control in my life. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more it has stressed me out. I’ve never really focused too much on that idea before. I knew that my career is out of my control in a way because I can’t control when I get auditions or when I book jobs. I can control how prepared I am for auditions, but that doesn’t guarantee I will get the job. But I never thought too much about how much in the rest of my life is out of my control.

I have tried to find control in my life in different ways, but I haven’t necessarily been successful. The main thing that comes to mind is finding a better job. I know that there isn’t a single job that can guarantee I am not at risk for losing it or feeling a bit out of control, but having a job that isn’t contract based or pays me enough to feel like I have a bit of a buffer would be helpful. But finding a job is also out of my control because I have applied for probably hundreds of jobs and rarely get interviews. I think it might be because the jobs I’m applying for don’t have super specific qualifications and they are good jobs, so a lot of people are applying for them as well. But all I can do is keep trying and hoping that something works out for me soon.

But instead of trying to change things that are out of my control into things that are in my control, I have been focusing on finding things I know I can control and add to my life. That helps me feel a bit more in control overall. And the best thing that I have found that gives me a sense of control is being helpful to other people in my life. I know I can’t control when they will need my help, but being available to provide help feels like enough for me right now.

I’ve found lots of random ways to be helpful. For example, a friend of mine needed a place to park his car that wouldn’t be on the street. He was asking if anyone knew of a cheap place for long-term parking. I have an extra parking space at my house. I have a garage that I don’t park in plus my regular parking spot. And I’ve let other friends borrow my garage in the past when they needed it because it’s not being used normally. So I offered it to this friend and he was able to use it while he was out of town for an extended period of time. I know that this was minimal effort from my end, but I know how much my friend appreciated it and I felt really good that I was able to help.

I’ve also been sending out cards to friends randomly when I know they could use some support. Sometimes I can’t do much because my friends aren’t local, but I still want to help them in some way. So sending a card for no reason can be a small way to help improve their mood. And I know these cards do help a bit when they are feeling low. And last week, I offered to help a friend get a bit of a break when she’s been dealing with a rough pregnancy and parenting a toddler. That ended up just being us hanging out and catching up for several hours, but I did help a little bit with watching her kid when she needed to step away for a few moments. And my offer to help her out is open-ended so I am very happy to go over to babysit for free when she needs it.

Being helpful really does make me feel in control and feel a lot better about things. For a long time, I have said I would love to be doing some regular volunteer work. I did a lot of volunteer work in high school and college, but I really haven’t done much after college. I’ve done a few random things, but nothing regular. And technically, my union service work is volunteering, but I’d love to do something that benefits more than just the union. But I also have been hesitant to commit to something when I know my job situation could change. Maybe I need to stop using that as an excuse so that I can have more helpful moments in my life. Even though helping others isn’t selfish, I do love how much better it makes me feel about my life.

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Being An Active And Interactive Viewer (or SAG Awards Live-Tweeting)

Posted on January 24, 2020 | Comments Off on Being An Active And Interactive Viewer (or SAG Awards Live-Tweeting)

I watch the SAG Awards every year. I love watching award shows about film and tv so I have watched them as long as I can remember. And since I’ve become a union member, I watch them because I want to see what my fellow members voted for. I like to see if the projects and performers I voted for were what a majority of the membership voted for. It’s fun to feel like I have a bit of ownership over the results of an awards show and this is the only one that I have that feeling with.

For most award shows, including the SAG Awards, I have done a bit of live-tweeting. It’s fun to be a part of a worldwide conversation as so many people are watching the same thing that I’m watching. And the discussions and debates that people have online about winners and losers are usually interesting. There isn’t a lot of negativity about the shows, which is probably one of the reasons why I like live-tweeting these and I’m not as much of a fan of live-tweeting political events. But for the show this past weekend, I had a slightly more serious live-tweeting job to do.

Since I have been doing the social media for my union slate, I haven’t really had to do a lot of live-tweeting of anything. This is probably not what should have happened, but it’s what happened. But this year, I wanted to make sure that I was using the slate’s social media to share things that happened during the show and make sure that the messages shared in speeches were shared with others. I wasn’t exactly sure what my plan would be, but I knew I’d be doing a lot of retweets and doing my best to create original tweets as I could.

For the first part of the show, most of the tweets I posted were just retweets from the official SAG Awards twitter account. This was an easy way to make sure the slate’s feed had information about who the winners were in each category. I did a few original tweets, but they were mainly comments on what was happening so I could do them during commercial breaks. I did also post a few snarkier tweets on my personal account because there were things I wanted to say that weren’t as professional as what I knew should be posted on the slate’s account.

But then I realized that I wanted to do more with the tweets I was posting for the slate. And I do love tweets that include some of the best parts of speeches. But there was no way to do things completely live because I can’t type that fast. So when I heard something that I knew I wanted to share, I had to rewind my DVR a bit and start transcribing it. Thank goodness for DVRs because I had to do a lot of rewinding and pausing. But I was able to get the quotes that I wanted to share.

I did post quotes from several of the acceptance speeches, but some of my favorites are the ones I got from President Gabrielle Carteris’ speech.

While trying to live-tweet actual speeches was a bit more stressful than making fun and snarky comments, I’m proud of the work that I was able to do. I am sure there are more efficient ways that I could get the quotes posted, but I need to figure out how to do that. I want to be able to do this again for the next SAG Awards and go even further with what I can share on social media. I might try to test out things with the upcoming Oscars since I know I will be live-tweeting for that. But I will likely do a majority of the live-tweeting on my personal account. I might share winners and retweets on the slate’s account, but that’s probably all I’ll do. And it will be harder with the Oscars since I will be watching at a party and won’t have the ability to pause or rewind things to type them out.

I know that having to live-tweet might have frustrated some people because it doesn’t necessarily allow you to fully enjoy watching it. And it stops the ability to live-tweet a bit too since I have to catch up to the live show during commercial breaks. But I didn’t mind it because it did feel very important to me to make sure our slate was sharing news from one of the most important nights for our union. I take a lot of pride in how I’ve been able to make our social media a source of information for both members and non-members. And while the SAG Awards are a bit more fun than some of the information I usually share, it’s still important to make sure people know what happens.

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Figuring Out A Plan For My Book (or I’m Not Sure What’s Next)

Posted on January 23, 2020 | Comments Off on Figuring Out A Plan For My Book (or I’m Not Sure What’s Next)

It’s been a little while since I finished the first draft of my book. I knew once I finished it that I was going to take some time away from it before I did anything else. Some of the stories about my dating were a little too fresh for me to be able to review what I wrote. And everything was still new in my mind and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to edit it too much. I did minor editing as I wrote each section, but I needed time away before I could look at it with fresh eyes to see what changes needed to be made.

And even though I wrote so much back in November, I have added stories since then. There have been a few dating situations where I knew I needed a section of my book about it. For example, I had a date last month where the guy thought the best way to fix his need to use a bathroom would be to unzip and pee on the sidewalk as we were walking. That one was so shocking that I didn’t know what to think. I just kept walking because I knew that was the end of that date. I didn’t even tell him I was done. I just kept going until I was sitting in my car. There was no way that the story wasn’t going to be in the book. It wasn’t the craziest date ever, but it’s up there. And it was the first date that I think I was truly speechless.

The main reason why I changed the format of my book to be all about life lessons was that I didn’t need to have a real ending for it. If it was a story of my dating history, I wouldn’t know how to end it until I found someone. But with it being about different lessons, I don’t have to necessarily have a happily ever after to feel like I can finish the book. Of course, I would love it if it did end that way. But I know that I can end it without that.

The next steps for the book are to edit it and then edit it a few more times. I’m pretty certain that I don’t have typos or crazy grammatical errors, but I know the stories aren’t perfect and they are probably a bit rambly (just like my blog posts are). I also probably have some stories that don’t make sense to someone other than me because I can fill in the gaps. So I want to not only edit it myself but have others read it to make sure they feel like it makes sense. Fortunately, I have several friends who have asked if they could read the book so I know I can get a lot of different opinions on if the book works.

But after editing it, I honestly have no clue what to do. I would love to get the book published because I think it is funny and entertaining and maybe a little educational as well. I really think I would have loved to have read a book with stories like mine when I got back into online dating. Plus, some of the lessons are things that I know my friends wouldn’t have thought of if they were in that situation. For example, the ways I am able to do a bit of searching to confirm my dates are telling me the truth about themselves are things that most of my friends have told me they wouldn’t have thought of doing. I would love to save someone from having to learn these lessons on their own and be able to date smarter after seeing my mistakes or issues.

I’ve also had friends who have told me I should turn my stories into a web series or something filmed, but I have never seen my book as a screenplay. I also don’t know how to write scripts so I think that is stopping me from thinking it could be a script. But I would prefer to focus on keeping it as a book and if something else happens from that, then I can figure it out from there. But the plan is to focus on keeping the book a book and seeing what can be done.

But this is where I am stuck. I don’t know how to try to get a book published or if I should look into self-publishing. I don’t know what the steps are to sell a book if I was able to do that. The entire publishing world is foreign to me and I am trying to not be overwhelmed by it. I did a little bit of research on what to do, but that was going a million steps ahead of where I am right now and it just became too much. So my only thoughts and plans are to work on the editing and then when that is done I will do the next thing. And I would love to know what that next thing would be without having to do the research, but I also know that I probably won’t have someone who comes to me telling me step by step what I need to do.

I’m going to try to start a bit of the editing process in the next month or two and then I guess I will just be figuring it out from there. And hopefully, when I get to the next step, I will have more updates I can share or I will have a better idea of what might come next.

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